Stress & Alcohol

Stress and alochol are poor mixers, primarily because while alcohol suppresses some things, stress can increase the production or action of others, and combined with alcohol they create undesirable results on the body and brain.

Like stressors of other types, alcohol can produce an excess of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), which is a stress hormone. This can result in an impaired response by the body's immune system to illness and disease, as well as affecting how well the brain cells are able to think and respond to information input/requests. Since stress is already putting pressure on the brain, and reducing its performance, alcohol increases the confusion and inability to function properly.

A report presented by David Suzuki, showed that under stress, women suffer more anxiety disorders, while men leaned towards alcoholism, and anti-social behavior, including criminal acts. This may be directly related to the fact that stress releases glucocorticoids from the adrenal glands, which in turn can increase the amount of dopamine that the brain produces in response to pleasure stimulus, such as how well one feels from the temporary effects of alcohol. The better it makes someone feel, the more they drink.

Alcohol depresses the brain and nervous system, and makes people more prone to mental depression. Added to the already fragile mental state induced by stress, this can drive some people into severe depression.

Even short periods of stress, have been shown in studies to leave the brain hypersensitive to additional stressors for weeks after the stress has been alleviated. That means that the brain of a person under stress is still receptive to the depressive effects of alcohol, even though their emotional stress may have been resolved.